Free Against Her Odds: when dedication meets desire by Natalie Love Page B

that you’re Cason
McDaniel,” she said, taking a quick puff of her cigarette to get herself
together.
    Cason nodded. “Guilty as charged. I was
kind of surprised about the news wanting to come out here. It’s just a regular
old spring. Lambs get born in every one of ‘em. At least I always hope that
they do,” he corrected himself with a small chuckle.
    “Well...” Val wasn’t sure what to say. She
didn’t really see the point of the story either, to be honest, but it wasn’t as
if she could say that to him. “People love a feel good story.”
    “Guess that’s true,” he admitted. “But I
would have thought you’d have something more important to cover.”
    “Not me,” she said, concealing her sudden
turn toward bitterness with a quick, fake laugh. “I guess we’d better get
started though. My camera crew is probably all set up.”
    “Sure thing.” Cason flicked away his
cigarette, pleased that he’d smoked less than half, and popped a few breath
mints. She held out her hand with a raised eyebrow and he handed her a few as
well. She chewed them quickly as they walked back up to where the crew had set
up the cameras. He figured he’d better do the same. People on TV probably
didn’t want to see him sucking on breath mints. And if they did, someone would
probably call him on the fact that he still hadn’t exactly quit smoking.
    He felt more nervous to be on camera than
he’d thought he would, but it was a short segment and he just followed
Valerie’s lead for most of it. It wasn’t hard to do. She was perfectly at ease,
both in front of the camera and around the newborn sheep. He hadn’t expected
that from a woman wearing an obviously tailored to fit pantsuit with a crisp
pink shirt. He could tell that she loved her job. She was clearly enjoying
herself and she had a warmth that really shone through as she spoke.
    When the story wrapped, he put the lamb
down and turned to her, but someone on the crew was asking her a question. He
waited patiently, watching the way she moved her hands when she spoke. She
didn’t do that on camera. Cason wondered idly if he had and then decided that
it didn’t really matter. He wouldn’t care one way or the other if he’d come off
looking like a total idiot if it would get him a date with Valerie Turner.
    As if she’d heard him thinking, she turned
back and glanced at him. He gave her a smile and waved her over. She walked
toward him, but then her cell phone rang. She held up one finger apologetically
and answered the phone.
    “This is Val.” She paused and then he saw
her eyebrows shoot up. “Really? Are you sure? I’ll be right there! Oh, hang on,
Becky.” She lowered the phone slightly and called. “It was a pleasure meeting
you, Mr. McDaniel. Thanks for the interview! Watch the six o’clock news and
you’ll catch me on the desk!”
    “Okay,” he answered, disappointed that she
was heading out so quickly. “But I--”
    She didn’t hear him. She’d raised her phone
to her ear again and was talking away rapidly to whoever the heck Becky was.
With a sigh, Cason turned to get back to fence mending.
    She sure had seemed happy to be on the desk
for the six o’clock news. He wondered why that was such a big deal. He hadn’t
had the heart to tell her that he never watched the news, local or otherwise.
He read the paper in the morning and that was enough news for him. He preferred
to spend his evening relaxing in front of an old movie.
    “How’d it go?” Mitchell asked.
    “I guess it went okay. I won’t know whether
I looked like an idiot or not till the news tonight.”
    “You gonna watch it?” his ranch hand asked
him in surprise.
    “Yeah,” Cason answered with a glance down
to where the news van was pulling out of his long, winding driveway. “I think I
might as well.”
     
    “You gonna run off for a career in showbiz
if you decide you look pretty on the camera?” Mitch asked, hefting a new fence
post with a grin.
    Cason plunked his